The present invention relates to a carbon fiber composite material and a method of producing the same, a formed product of carbon fiber composite and a method of producing the same, a carbon fiber-metal composite material and a method of producing the same, and a formed product of carbon fiber-metal composite and a method of producing the same.
In recent years, composite materials using carbon nanofibers have attracted attention. These composite materials are expected to exhibit improved mechanical strength and the like due to the presence of the carbon nanofibers.
As a casting method for a metal composite material, a casting method in which a molten metal permeates a porous formed product consisting of oxide ceramics by causing magnesium vapor to permeate and become dispersed in the porous formed product and by introducing nitrogen gas has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-183269, for example).
However, since the carbon nanofibers have strong aggregating properties, it is very difficult to uniformly disperse the carbon nanofibers in a substrate of a composite material. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain a carbon nanofiber composite material having desired properties, and the expensive carbon nanofibers cannot be efficiently utilized.
Moreover, since the conventional casting method in which a molten metal is caused to permeate the porous formed product consisting of oxide ceramics includes complicated processing, production on an industrial scale is difficult.